This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

In one of the world’s many silly coincidences, here is a videogame release to come out at the same time as a feature film with the exact same title. Our in-house teams of statisticians are bouncing of the walls trying to calculate the probability of such an occurrence.

All the fans of the 1970s movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory who were disappointed in their inability to accuse the 2005 Tim Burton adaptation for “ruining their childhood” should take solace in just how horrible this game is. I’m sorry, should I have saved that shocking reveal for the end of the review? Well here’s the thing, this game is so bad that I don’t even recommend that you read the rest of this review – much less consider spending any amount of your mom’s money on the actual game. Just like movies, there can be games that are so bad that they’re funny instead of just boring. This game is so bad that it goes past boring, past so-bad-it’s-good, past so-bad-it’s-funny, into a dark, depressing, and humid world where a game is so bad that it’s just bad.

For those of you who’re still with me: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, developed by High Voltage Studios (whose opening title logo is more interesting than any other part of their actual game), is a for-kids adaptation of the movie released last month. In it, you play Charlie Bucket who in a ridiculously surprising plot twist wins a ticket to take a tour in the elusive Willy Wonka’s candy factory. Most of the game is spent trying to save some of your annoying tour-mates from the deaths they endure in the movie.



Something this game can brag about is its sound design. All of the kiddies from the movie provide the voices for their game characters; Johnny Depp does not voice Mr. Wonka in the game, but the sound-alike is convincing enough to not make me wonder why on earth an Oscar-winner didn’t volunteer for such a game. The music is as inspired as it is in the movie, but the notable lack of Oompa Loompa songs is almost confusing.

Some of the level design in Charlie is pretty good; many of the dark and colorful set-pieces from the Burton film are transferred well.



Everything else.

All the parts that make this game a game aren’t good enough to be called gameplay aspects. Deductive reasoning dictates, therefore, that this game isn’t a game and thereby this review shouldn’t exist.

The bulk of the “game”play here is played out by running Charlie around various parts of the factory, trying to save all the brats who get their comeuppance while Willy Wonka and everyone else who isn’t orange continue the tour, paying you and your endeavors no mind. To save all the kids, you have to enlist the random and unmotivated assistance of the creepy little Oompa Loompas to do mindless tasks like jumping on bellows or welding the plumbing. That is, of course, if you can figure out what it is the game wants you to do. All of the little tasks you need to perform are preceded with a little dialog from Wonka that explain mostly the principle of what you need to do and not specifically what you need to do.

At one point I had to throw gobstoppers at trees and harvest the candy from inside, but all that was explained to me was that if you throw a gobstopper at a tree candy will come out. Nobody mentioned that the same pointless task had to be performed three times in order to continue. This was only 10 minutes into the game, and it only got worse and worse.

Throwing gobstoppers is about the only thing you can actually do in the game. Everything else has to be ordered upon the Loompas, who are given the same amount of AI cycles as the floor you walk on. You’re only given the ability to make orders like “work” and “stay”, so good luck getting anything of any value to happen.

What this game ultimately lacks is any feeling that you’re in the chocolate factory or that it’s a cool place to be. The game boils down to a heap of boring and pointless tasks that waste the magical factory as its scenery. This game would be better suited as a party game or as some educational minigames for the Macintosh. The game as it is now is just a waste.

That doesn’t matter, however, because you aren’t going to play this game and you aren’t reading this review.



It is rare for a game based on a movie to be worth any more than a rental, but it is even rarer that a movie game (or any game for that matter) be this bad. Charlie and the Chocolate factory is obviously meant for the kids, but I doubt anybody would have the patience for it. Don’t be sucked in for the bright and shiny – stay away.

Running around and getting stuck on things isn’t my kind of game.

Some pretty environments, but all are claustrophobic and the graphics suffer from jaggies.

A great score and better-than-average voiceovers. But come on! No Oompa Loompa songs?

Turning the game off was pretty fun, and some of the cutscenes were nice to watch.

I didn’t want to keep playing after my first drink break.

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